1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, generally, to a method for controlling a communications terminals in which control instructions can be called from an instruction memory and, more particularly, to a method wherein the control instructions have individually callable control instruction components such that a freely selectable sequence of such components can be stored and retrieved.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Such communications terminals are, for example, added-feature telephones (with or without telephone answering machines), the telephone answering machines themselves, fax machines, and cordless or mobile telephones. These communications terminals have an entire series of components which has to be set and controlled by a user. These components include, for example, the terminal itself, a base station in the case of cordless telephones, externally provided services in the telecommunications network and, a telephone answering machine which is to be interrogated from an external telephone.
The control of the components of the communications terminal is, as a rule, carried out by means of a dialing keypad. By actuating a key on the dialing keypad, signals are actuated using the multi-frequency method. Functions, which also can be represented on a display, are triggered by means of these signals. The number of possible signals is predefined by the number and the assignment of the keys on the given dialing keypad.
When the communications terminal itself, or an associated base station, is set, signals are used to call functions which cannot be entered via a standard dialing keypad.
In the case of control signals which are transmitted to external devices via a trunk line, the user has, as a rule, no further influencing possibilities apart from a manually insertable pause whose duration can be defined.
In the case of communications terminals with a telephone directory register or with programmable function keys, the user can store the necessary control instructions on these function keys or in the register. The user is restricted here to the characters which can be stored in the corresponding registers. In addition, after the calling and transmission of the corresponding register contents, the user no longer has any influence on the execution of the control sequence and, thus, on the execution of the function. With this type of storage of the control signals, the user cannot integrate variable call numbers or personal identification numbers into the control sequence and/or into the control instructions during the execution. For variable call numbers and identification numbers it is then necessary to assign two function keys for the execution of a function. For the first function key, the control sequence is executed up to the necessary entry of a variable call number or an identification number. With the second function key, the rest of the control sequence is executed after the entry of the number.
The present invention is therefore directed toward specifying a method of the type mentioned at the beginning by means of which the user-friendliness of the communications terminal is increased.
Accordingly, in an embodiment of the present invention, a method is provided for controlling a communications terminal in which control instructions can be called from an instruction memory, wherein the method includes the steps of: providing individually callable control instruction components for each control instruction; storing a freely selectable sequence of the control instruction components for each control instruction under a name; and holding the freely selectable sequence of the control instruction components ready for a call.
In an embodiment, the method further includes the step of selecting the name from a list of names for the call.
In an embodiment, the method further includes the step of assigning the name to a function key wherein the name is selected via actuation of the function key for the call.
Additional features and advantages of the present invention are described in, and will be apparent from, the Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiments and the Drawings.